Blood or Bride
by The Phantom Alchemist
Summary: After sixteen years of nothing but scorn in her village, Luminitia is through with life. But when she offers it to the vampire of vampires, will he accept her offer or turn it around? Will she be able to survive as a human in a vampire world woth nothing but the promise of immortality in her future, especially when those around her are being murdered by a Vatican monster hunter?
1. Blood Offering

**Okay, so I got obsessed with Van Helsing. It could happen to anyone.**

**Except for the fact that I was highly infatuated with Dracula, not Van Helsing himself. So, here is the product of my imagination after watching the movie five times in the course of three days. This is the first fanfiction I've done for something like this. Every other one I've ever done has been for anime. So, I don't know if this is technically good or not. If you like it, could you maybe tell me? Please?**

**Anyway, enjoy.**

* * *

It isn't an innate desire to do wicked that makes humans evil. People aren't born good or bad, and their personality doesn't shape them as villains or heroes. Other people make them what they are. This is especially true where I live. There is evidence of it everywhere. My village is the product of what monsters have done to us, and its residents results of the frequent death and chaos we suffer through.

I especially am an example of this. I have been shaped by others. Am I evil? Maybe.

* * *

Transylvania is a horrid place to grow up an orphan. In my village, no one is even bothered to care for abandoned children. And who can blame them, when we are plagued by the creatures that supposedly exist in only myth? Werewolves and vampires prey upon us, though vampire attacks are far more frequent. No one knows where they come from or where they drag their victims.

Four centuries ago, a Transylvanian king, Valerius the Elder, made a deal with God. Until Dracula, the man's own son, who is in fact the vampire of legend, was killed, neither he nor any of the rest of his family would enter Heaven.

Three of his ancestors, our royalty, remain: Boris Valerius, our king, and his children, Princess Anna and Prince Velkan. Dracula is still not dead. He and his three wives, Aleera, Verona, and Marishka, thrive.

His wives attack the village once a month or so, sometimes more, taking with them one to three victims a raid. Usually they prey upon middle-aged men, but if they can snatch a child, they will. I am convinced they choose their prey according to the potency of their victims' blood.

A raid is a tragic event, but an accepted part of life in this village. There is nothing that thrills the undertaker more. Personally, I hope one of these days the wives carry him off. He's by far the most frightening man I've ever met. He knows each person's coffin measurements by heart, and he takes particular pleasure in calling mine to me when I pass, and asking me what sentiment I want him to carve on my headstone.

However, he's probably too old for his blood to be any good to the wives. Maybe a werewolf will get him. We haven't seen one of those here in years, but there's always the possibility.

Werewolves, though far less frequent, show up every few years or so. They are widely known to serve Dracula. No one knows why.

Living in this village is like living in Hell.

When you grow up an orphan, there is literally no one in the world who cares about you. My mother died in childbirth. My dad was killed by the last werewolf spotted in these parts, a part of an expedition to kill it that departed with twenty men and returned with three. I was seven years old. It has been nine years since his death.

Orphans must fend for themselves, which typically means orphans don't last long. I am one of the lucky ones. I took refuge in a dilapidated old barn at the edge of the village, a building no one else would come near. It was too big a risk. It could cave in at any minute. But, it being the best I could do, I took it for my home and lived and slept only on the bottom level, never the top. My weight would surely be too much for the rotting boards to hold, no matter how tiny I am.

I haven't grown an inch since I was twelve. I stand at a proud 5'2", which I wouldn't have known without the undertaker's constant heckling, and am practically a skeleton, especially in the winter, when food is hard enough to find if you do have money and almost impossible if, like me, you don't. Money and food are easier to find in the summer and autumn seasons, when the harvest is being reaped and new seeds being planted.

The one truly dangerous thing about this town is that it doesn't care much for outsiders. Almost every foreigner we've had in my sixteen years of living here has been killed, much to the undertaker's delight. I think maybe two we released, weaponless, into the woods. No one knows of their fates.

Therefore, it was no surprise that when a rich scientist moved into the castle about a mile outside of town when I was fifteen, the people of the village were uneasy. I was the one sent to find out his name and purpose, and paid well for it, a pleasant influx of cash in the middle of winter.

I never got beyond the enormous front doors, which were answered by a gruesome man who called for his master. His master was a young, handsome man with brown hair and a thin mustache, who spoke with the accent of the British. His introduced himself as Dr. Victor Frankenstein, and he would only tell me he was a scientist. He had chosen this location for its isolation, so he could work in peace.

I went back to the village, relayed the information, and was paid. We began to call the castle "Castle Frankenstein" and were advised not to go near it.

About a quarter of a year later, the undertaker discovered that the graves of our dead were being robbed for bits and pieces. Arms, legs, eyes, intestines. A plethora of parts were taken from the deceased, and we blamed the outsider.

A boy, another orphan who had beaten the odds, much like myself, and survived to the age of fifteen, was selected to investigate. He was promised a much more tempting payment than I was, and he departed for Castle Frankenstein without protest. We presumed him dead when he had still not returned three days later, but he came back the fourth day, ghostly white, and choked out to King Boris that Frankenstein was making a monster, using human parts to do so.

And then he keeled over, dead. The undertaker gleefully proclaimed that the boy had literally died of fright.

It took a few days to assemble an angry mob, led by the undertaker. They stormed Castle Frankenstein on the most awful night I've ever lived through, a night when the sky was cloaked in black clouds and lightning flashed ever few seconds, but there was no rain. The lightning struck my barn and it crumbled at once as it caught fire.

I did not think to join the mob, not once. It was a foolish errand. I followed them for my entertainment, however, climbing trees and leaping from branch to branch to keep up with them. I was high enough to see what they couldn't, and it was incredible. Frankenstein was making a monster. It was made of human parts, strapped to an operating table with electrodes everywhere to attract the lightning, and attract lightning it did. The body, composed of at least seven of our dead men, jolted, seizing with thousands of volts of pure electricity.

I heard the creature scream. Holy crow, the damned thing was alive.

I watched the men of the village, their faces lit with flickering light from the torches they carried, as they ran onto the bridge over the castle's moat and began to attempt to break down the front doors. It took them over a dozen attempts before the doors even began to splinter, and just as they seemed ready to give way I heard a hideous roar. "Dr. Frankenstein!"

Every head turned to the left, where Frankenstein's gruesome servant stood, watching an enormous, man-shaped figure limping towards the windmill, carrying a limp body in his arms. The grave-robbing scientist, I presumed.

"He's headed for the windmill!" the undertaker roared, and the mob surged for the forest, away from the castle, racing after the monster towards the windmill.

The monster disappeared inside before the mob, now doubled in size after what seemed like every other member of the village had joined, women and children alike. Rather than storm in after it, the undertaker yelled, "Burn it down!"

The windmill was at once showered with the torches, catching fire immediately. The flames spread rapidly, engulfing the building. I could feel the pulsating heat from my perch on a tree branch, high above the others.

The monster appeared on the outer rim of the windmill, cradling what appeared to be the dead body of Victor Frankenstein in his arms. The crowd began shouting slanders at it, screaming at it with pure rage. Something in my chest flared. I felt so alive, watching this scene unfold.

Half the monster's face was covered in cloth bandages, not unlike a mummy. I watched, horrifically enthralled, as it opened its mouth a let out a guttural, mournful wail. "_Why_?!"

The crowd's angry exclamations slowly died down. I was as equally shocked, though also somewhat delighted. Who knew the thing could speak? How incredible!

The monster moaned again, the anguish in its voice so apparent it sent a shiver down my spine. "_Why_?!" The torment in its eyes was amazing. The thing even had _emotions_.

A woman in the crowd fainted.

In the brief silence, an epiphany hit me with the impact of a lunging werewolf. There was nothing left for me anymore. After this night, when the thrill of chasing a monster had ended and the angry mob had dissipated, I would be returning to the village, returning to nothing. My home – if you could even call it that – was in ashen ruins. There was nobody waiting for me. It was late Autumn; the harvest was coming to an end and I didn't have nearly enough money to survive the winter, and without shelter I was as good as dead.

And, quite suddenly, it hit me. I hated the village. I even hated living. I'd gone through life with so much resentment, so much hatred towards everyone and everything, that I was nothing but a bitter slip of a girl, practically a ghost. No one would care if I died. I didn't even care if I died. I even welcomed the idea of death. That had to be, at the very least, exciting.

I was so absorbed in my abrupt depression that I didn't notice the four figures in the sky, cutting through the air towards us, until a villager screamed, "It's the vampires!"

"Run!" another voice screeched. Just like that, the angry mob transformed into a terrified pack of scrawny humans, little more than prey for the vampires. They were scared out of their wits. I didn't even flinch. There were four figures in the sky. There were only three wives. That meant Dracula himself was coming, and I for one was curious to see what this dark lord of the night looked like.

While I awaited the arrival of the vampires, the monster looked down at Frankenstein and croaked out a pitiful, "Father?"

I guess it hadn't realized its creator was already dead. I wonder how the grave-robber died. Maybe his creation even killed him.

The windmill collapsed and I heard the monster let out one final scream before the entire building went up in flames, crumbling to the ground. That show having reached its inevitable end, I turned my attention to the vampires approaching rapidly through the sky.

One figure led the others. It was much larger, much darker. Dracula. The brides' bat forms are white and small, more aerodynamic. They landed behind him.

I saw the bat creatures for only an instant before they transformed. The wives were all heart-crushingly beautiful. Aleera is a small redhead with wildly curly hair and a frightening, high-pitched voice. She seems to be the most devoted to Dracula. Marishka is the cruelest of the wives, a curly-haired blond with a talent for taunting her prey, playing games with them, before she attacks. Verona has long, perfectly straight black hair and a knack for choosing those of us villagers who have the most potent blood.

The wives watched the windmill as it burned, clutching at each other and moaning as though it was the saddest thing any of them had ever seen. Verona seemed to be in far more anguish than her sister brides, and they screamed and cried and reached towards the flames hopelessly, sobbing, over what I didn't know. All there was to cry over was a dead scientist, a monster, and a windmill.

Dracula did nothing but stand there, watching as it burned. I saw his face for the first time and gasped.

He was, to put it simply, the most beautiful man I have ever laid eyes upon. Our Prince Velkan is handsome, certainly, but Dracula… the way he held himself with such a regal air of dignity attracted me far more than the warrior-like demeanor Prince Velkan adopts. Dracula had long black hair tied back in a fashion that has long since died out, and had black eyes I could lose myself in. His lips were perfect.

The only thing that came close to ruining the illusion was the expression on Dracula's face, one of rather forced sorrow, like he'd just lost something he had wanted very dearly.

A smile crept across my lips before I could stop it. My ideas are usually delusional, but this one I wanted to carry out. I had nothing to return to and more or less wanted to die. I decided that it would be a privilege to be killed by him, a delight to feel my life drain out of my body as Count Dracula took it into him, drinking every lost drop of blood that I had to offer.

Dracula turned his head slowly in my direction. My breath caught in my chest. He was staring straight at me. "A human girl," he said tonelessly, his voice laced with a thick Romanian accent that made a shiver of pleasure run up the back of my spine. "How odd to find one lurking in the trees like a beast."

If I had been spotted, I may as well crawl down and present my offer. I dropped out of the tree with what little grace I have, putting too much weight on my left ankle as I landed. I winced as pain shot through my body.

The wives had stopped moaning. They were staring directly at me.

"You did not run with your fellow villagers," Dracula said to me. I could feel his eyes scanning my body. Perhaps he was trying to sense the flow of my blood. "You are either very foolish or very brave."

It took me a while to find my voice. I was mesmerized by his gaze. "I have a proposition for you," I said breathlessly, using up too much air at the beginning on my sentence so the last word was almost indistinct.

The wives glanced curiously at each other. It was Verona who spoke first, her voice also holding the thick accent the Romanians are famed for. I know my voice is accented too, though not quite so deeply. "And what offer could a human make to us?"

"Not to you," I whispered. It took more courage than I thought it would to speak those words. I looked back to Dracula. "Just to him."

I held my head high, waiting for his answer. I seemed to have caught him slightly off guard, though the signs of shock he was showing were subtle. "I'm intrigued," he told me, nodding to make me aware I had his permission to continue. "Go on."

I swallowed hard. "I want to die," I said. My voice trembled. "And you need blood. Please… I want you to take mine. Take it all."

Marishka began to laugh, a cruel noise. "You think yourself noble?" she cackled. "One girl's life won't prevent your village from being attacked again, Dearie. We need blood more than once."

"This isn't me being noble," I said, more firmly. "But I'm as good as dead anyway." I looked to Dracula pleadingly. "And I want to die. I want you to kill me! Take my life to sustain yours!"

When did I turn into this? A creature who will beg a vampire to eat her? I never dreamed that I would be here, standing before the king of darkness and his brides, pleading to be killed. Suddenly embarrassed, I lowered my head.

I felt a strand of my brown hair lifted from my shoulder. I looked up and suppressed a gasp. Dracula stood before me, twirling the strand of my hair in his fingers. "You are quite a beautiful creature," he said quietly.

"Am I?" I asked bashfully. I never imagined I would hear those words spoken to me. "I've never even seen my reflection."

He seemed amused by this. "What is your name?"

It had been a long time since I'd spoken it. Sometimes I would even have to try hard to remember it. No one ever asked for my name, and I didn't make a habit of speaking it aloud to myself. I barely talked at all. I found no pleasure in hearing the sound of my voice, and people so infrequently spoke to me. "Luminitia."

"Luminitia," Dracula repeated thoughtfully. "_Little light_." This was a loose translation of my name. He smiled. "How appropriate."

Maybe he meant I had such a tiny life force, so insignificant I was practically invisible. Maybe it was a metaphor for Transylvania itself, in which the sun is rarely seen, perpetually hidden behind clouds. Or maybe he was discussing himself, as a creature who cannot survive in sunlight.

"My lord," Aleera spoke softly. "You don't mean…"

"Such a _tragedy_ it would be to let such an enticing creature slip into nonexistence. So beautiful and lithe… can you imagine what she could do with immortality? A human whose heartbeat does not falter even as she stands facing four vampires?"

I let out a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding. I didn't quite understand. Was he letting me go? Rejecting my proposal?

"How old are you?" Dracula breathed as he dropped my hair and began to stroke my face. His fingers were cool.

"I'll be seventeen come All Hallows Eve," I replied, feeling rather winded. How could my heart not be racing?

Dracula smiled again. "Perhaps too young," he said contemplatively, though he didn't look as though he was reconsidering whatever he was thinking of doing with me. Maybe I was getting eaten after all. His hands rested on my neck. His fingers brushed against the spot where he could feel my pulse, the blood rushing through my veins. "Now your heart is racing," he informed me amusedly. "Although I do not sense you are frightened."

"That's because I'm not," I said at once. The words just slipped out.

Dracula made a small noise of amusement. "Oh, my brides," he said, looking back at them with a delighted gleam in his eye. "What a fine addition she will make to our kind."

It hit me in that moment. He did want to bite me, but he didn't want to drain me of my blood. He liked me. Enough so that he wanted me to become one of his brides. "You're going to make me one of you?" I asked, exhilarated. What a turn of events! What an excitement! If I was one of them… I could have my revenge on the village that scorned me for so many years. I would be able to fly. I would become a dangerous, beautiful creature. And, the fact that delighted me the most, I could spend the rest of forever with Dracula.

He smiled. "Not tonight."

I felt tricked. "Wait… you mean you're going to leave me here after all? I hate it here! If you're planning on doing that I'd rather you sucked my blood out of me right now!" I meant it this time. I'd seen a brief chance at escape, at everything I could want, and now I had none of it. With the loss of that hope, I'd lost any will to live I had left in me.

That made him laugh. Sort of. He never actually laughed, but he was grinning so that it looked like he could have been. "Oh, no. If what you say is true, and you are as good as dead remaining here, I prefer to have you near us, where you would be assuredly safe until the day you turn eighteen. Then," he smiled. "I shall make you immortal. We will be wed, and you can join my brides as one of them."

Marishka didn't seem too enthralled, but Aleera and Verona were looking at me with much kinder eyes all of a sudden.

"My brides!" Dracula said commandingly, turning to them. "Return to Castle Dracula. We shall join you shortly."

"Yes, my lord," Aleera crooned as she and the other wives leapt into the air, soaring a comfortable distance away before they twisted into their bat forms.

"We aren't going with them?" I asked, suddenly worried. I yelped when he picked me up like a princess in a storybook.

"Our travel will be slower," he smiled, almost dangerously. "We can't have you getting scared off if I transform, can we?" With that, he leapt into the night, and, for fear of falling, I wrapped my arms around him and squeezed my eyes shut.

This had to be a dream. I was flying in the arms of a vampire, and not just any vampire. This was Dracula. In a little over a year, I would be immortal. I would be his bride.

For the first time in years, I felt truly happy.

* * *

**I must say, this was long… but worth it. I've got some of that pent-up infatuation out of my system, though I haven't quite exhausted all of it. If you want to see more of Luminitia's crazy story, drop me a review! I seriously love every review I get.**

**Thanks for reading!**

**Phantom, out!**


	2. Revelation in Reflection

**Okay… don't kill me since I'm taking some liberties with this story. I'm trying my best (and somewhat distracted… I'm watching **_**Sweeney Todd**_**, hehheh). In the film, it seems Dracula was in some sort of icy slumber, but I prefer to think he was actually doing things during that year gap between the opening scene and Van Helsing's assignment to help the Valerious family. He did kidnap Boris Valerious and use him for an experiment, after all. Also, the brides' ages and personalities. For instance, I see Verona as a matronly type, and I think there's a good possibility she was the count's first wife (she dresses in the oldest style).**

**So, to round this dreadful introduction off, here's chapter two.**

* * *

I didn't remember having fallen unconscious, but it didn't really matter. It was probably just sometime during the journey. I had been dreadfully tired, so tired that even the rapture of being taken to Castle Dracula by the great vampire himself couldn't keep me awake. I awoke with a start, shivering from cold. It was freezing.

I was lying on a stone slab in a cavernous room, covered by a thin blanket of woven thread. The room was made entirely of stone, so cold I could see my breath manifest as fog. Old, long-since abandoned spider webs hung in the rooms dark corners. In one corner, a porcelain tub sat, filled with water. I could see a thin vapor of steam rising from it. On the opposite end of the room, in an enormous stone hearth, a fire flickered. I gathered the blanket around my thin shoulders and crossed the room, sitting in front of the fire and holding my hands out before it, rubbing my arms and breathing into my fingers, trying to relieve the bitter cold.

I finally got enough of my senses about me to wonder where everyone else was – the wives, Dracula, anyone. I was alone in this room. I entertained a ludicrous fantasy that I had truly been brought here as a pet, which the vampires would keep for a while, slowly watching me freeze, before devouring me, but any thoughts like that vanished when a heavy door to the right of the hearth swung open and two of the brides glided in. Aleera and Verona.

"The human girl is awake," Verona smiled at her sister bride, seemingly amused. "Your name was Luminitia, was it?"

I nodded, suddenly struck mute.

"Look, Verona. She's cold," Aleera said, scanning me with her gaze. "I forget that humans feel warmth and cold. We should have the master try to warm the castle up a bit."

"He won't need to. He plans to keep her in Budapest for a while, at the summer palace. It is warmer there."

I swallowed hard. I hated being talked about as though I wasn't in the room, but what I was about to do was possibly suicide. "I'm sitting right here. You could tell me, instead of just talking about me."

Verona laughed, a reaction I was not expecting. "Our lord has certainly changed his taste in brides. We were not so blunt as you when he found us."

Aleera sighed. "I thought surely Marishka was sarcastic enough for him."

Verona was suddenly right next to me, running my brown hair through her fingers. "I can see why he wants you. You really are an exquisite creature. Aleera, you brought what we will be needing?"

Aleera vanished for all of five seconds and reappeared, holding a basket. "It is here," she assured Verona, carrying it over and setting it down. She offered me a smile and informed me, "The master has tasked us with preparing you."

"For what?"

"For the journey to Budapest," she said. "He will present you as his fiancée to the others of our kind there, marking you as his. That way, should any have the chance to steal you, they will dare not act upon their hunger. Our master must have what he wants."

"Come here, dear," Verona said, lifting me up and guiding me to the tub in the corner. "It has been decades since either of us has drawn a bath. When you are immortal, you will not need to bother with such mundane human rituals as this."

Before I knew what she was doing, Verona ripped my tattered excuse of a dress clean open and stripped it off of me, leaving me entirely naked but for my socks.

Neither Aleera or Verona seemed disturbed by my nudity. Verona only gestured to me feet and told me to slip out of my socks, which I did, and she took my hand so I wouldn't slip as I lowered myself into the bath. "Poor thing," she mumbled as I let out an irrepressible sigh of satisfaction. I had never before had a hot bath. "What sort of life you must have been living for sixteen years…"

Despite my insistence that I could wash myself, Verona and Aleera hovered over me. Verona paid special attention to my feet, which I found embarrassing for some strange reason, and Aleera washed my hair with various soaps, running a comb through my hair, working out years of tangles (the only hairbrush I've ever owned I sold one particularly cold winter when I was ten).

"Where's Marishka?" I asked after Aleera released my hair and told me to dip my head under the water.

"She is with the master," Verona told me. "She was… not happy about his decision to make you his betrothed. He is… reassuring her."

I knew what that meant. Vampire sex.

Out of the bath, I nearly froze to death. My teeth chattered as I rubbed myself with a towel the vampire brides gave to me, and the wives threw clothes on me faster than I could register, which didn't do much to warm me up but left me feeling much less exposed, even though the neckline was so low it was quite prominently displaying what little cleavage I have.

Aleera rubbed my hair vigorously with another towel, admiring it. "Such pretty brown hair," she sighed. "We should probably cut it a bit, though. It's too thin near the end."

"Do that now," Verona said. "While her hair is still wet."

We sat by the fire and Aleera clipped off about two inches of my hair evenly with a silver pair of scissors and then turned me so my back faced the fire so that my hair would dry faster.

Verona and Aleera both began to apply powders and what seemed like paint to my face, over my eyelids and lips and cheeks.

"I certainly see why the master was taken with her," Verona said contemplatively, staring at me to assess their handiwork. "Once your hair is dry you will want to look in a mirror for the first time, no?"

I nodded eagerly, brushing a strand of my still-damp hair out of my face. Verona lowered herself to the floor and sat in front of me, sighing. "Sometimes I miss being able to feel the warmth of a fireplace," she smiled nostalgically. "I haven't felt anything like that for almost 400 years."

"Dracula changed you first?" I asked.

"_The lord_ made me his first wife, yes," she smiled, emphasizing the title for Dracula. I suppose we were supposed to be submissive to him. I could do that. Being entirely submissive to one person, in exchange for immortal life, for eternal youth, was only too easy. "I was the wife of a dreadful man. The master found me, thank the devil. He changed me. I've been with him ever since."

I turned to Aleera. "What happened to you?" I asked quietly.

She smiled. "My story is not so sad. I was the daughter of a duke, valued for my beauty. I could have almost anything I wanted. Oh, I knew I was beautiful. And when the lord found me, he thought so too. Now I truly can have anything I want. And I do."

"Marishka?" I asked.

Verona sighed. "Our sister… she did not have so good a life. She was an orphan like you. A horrid human woman found her. Used her as a slave. And when Marishka was old enough, she sold her into a whore house."

I gulped. That could have happened to me. Almost has, a couple of times. But I'm faster than I look. "That's terrible."

"She killed a man," Aleera added. "One of the men who tried to… take her. And then she ran. The master found her half dead in the forest as she tried to escape to the next town over. The only way to save her…" Aleera smiled. "Well."

The only way to save her was to kill her. I understood completely.

"Come, dear," Verona said, standing and pulling me to my feet. "Your hair should be dried enough. Have your first look in a mirror."

I went with her more than willingly. This was like my initiation. Seeing myself, for the first time, as I was truly supposed to be. As a vampire's betrothed. A future creature of the night. Seeing myself as someone beautiful, waiting for the promise of life eternal.

Verona pulled a white sheet off the wall, revealing a reflective surface. I gasped, suddenly frightened, and shut my eyes. Maybe I wasn't really beautiful. Maybe if I looked I would shatter the illusion, and lose everything. Maybe the minute I realized I had been deceived, they'd kill me, and I would never see Dracula again.

I felt Verona's cool hand on my bare shoulder and she guided me a few steps to the left. I heard Aleera's voice, close to me, murmur, "It's alright. You should look at yourself. You are so lovely." She sighed longingly. "I have not seen my reflection in such a long time. Cherish the moments stolen in front of a mirror, my dear. You shall not have them for long."

With a shudder, I opened my eyes. In front of me was the mirror. I tried not to look at myself at first, noting that, even though Aleera was on my left and Verona on my right, I could not see them in the mirror. Taking a deep breath, I looked at myself, for the very first time.

I had no idea. No idea I was so…

My eyes were green. I'd never known that. The color of spring grass, with flecks of amber dotting my irises. My hair was brown, of course, but I had no idea it was so thick, so wavy. I pinned it back every day, to keep it out of the way. Usually when I took it out, it was so damp with sweat it hung limp down to the base of my spine. Now it was down to my mid back, two inches shorter in length and rippling. My lips were dark, because of the paint the brides had put on them, but I'd no idea they were so full. My nose was in the exact center of my face, my cheekbones were high, my eyebrows were thin, and my jaw and neck were slender.

I looked like a vampire. And I hadn't even been turned yet.

"You will be more beautiful even than me," Aleera said enviously, as though reading my thoughts. "The lord will be pleased with you."

"You are lovely, my dear," A deeper, male voice resounded through the room, and I jumped, startled. I turned around and saw Dracula standing right behind me, causing me further shock. I hadn't heard him come up behind me, and how could I have known he was there, since he had no reflection in the mirror? "Drac – My lord," I corrected myself just barely in time, my voice breathy. "You startled me."

He smiled and wrapped an arm around my slender shoulders, turning me towards the mirror. He stared at my reflection. "Don't we make a lovely couple?" he asked.

The corners of my lips twitched. "I think you are far more handsome than I, my lord."

"We shall find out," he said, turning me towards him. "You have done well, my brides. Now leave us."

Verona and Aleera whispered submissions to him and bowed from the room, leaving me and the king of vampires alone. He stepped away from me, folding him arms behind his back. "Stay still," he whispered, beginning to walk slowly in circles around me. Obviously satisfied, he approached me once more and placed a hand at the base of my neck, over the place where my pulse surged. He let out a sigh. "I can feel the blood running through your veins. So strong… so steady." His other hand cupped my cheek and he caressed me, running his fingers down my neck, his palm resting at the hollow of my throat.

I let out a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding.

He smiled and raised the hand resting over my pulse slowly, his fingers cupping my chin. "You torment me already," he breathed. "The smell of your blood… it is lovelier than that of any human I have ever had the pleasure of encountering."

"Then have a taste," I whispered, extending my neck and shutting my eyes. Why did we have to wait until I was eighteen? I was ready now. I felt his lips press against my neck, over my pulse, and he began trailing kisses up, planting the final on my lips. His were surprisingly soft… warm, even, although that may have only been because I was so cold.

"The more ravenous I am," he whispered into my ear, "the more succulent the meal." He lifted me into his arms like he had before, when he was carrying me away from the village I once called home. "We travel to Budapest tonight," he informed me. "You shall be revealed there. And all will know you belong to me."

Oh, how I loved the sound of that. "What about your brides?"

"They shall remain here," he said. "They deserve the rest, after the nightmare they've just been through."

"Nightmare?"

"You will know soon enough," he murmured, placing a hand over my eyes. "Sleep, now, my Luminitia. When you wake we shall be in Budapest."

Vampiric hypnotism, perhaps. I felt drowsy just to hear the words. I suppose that solved the mystery of how I'd fallen unconscious on the flight here.

_Total_ _submission_, I reminded myself.

I gave myself to sleep.

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**Chapter two, done! Now, as of October 2, I have 38 views, which is not bad for a fanfiction of an old-ish, more obscure movie, but I was maybe hoping for a little more than two reviews? Please? =3**

**Anyways, I'm thinking of writing a **_**Sweeney Todd**_** fanfiction, and I was wondering if any of you 38 readers would be interested in reading that, if I wrote it? If you know that movie, of course…**

**Thanks you for reading, everybody!**

**Phantom, out!**


	3. A Graceless Waltz

**Tons of positive response! Wow! Thank you so much, you guys! I cannot stress enough what a wonderful gift those reviews are to me. To be honest, I'm surprised that you all like a Dracula/OC fanfiction so much, and even more so since I've barely gotten any of that action in there. Also, I know my fic is rated M and hasn't been very M-oriented yet, but it's getting there, trust me. ;) So, we resume after Luminitia's bonding time with Verona and Aleera has ended and Dracula has taken her to Budapest. He is about to claim her as his own! Let's pray some depraved vampire doesn't get to her first (hint hint). How's that for… (cue dramatic music) FORESHADOWING?!**

**I'm sorry. I'm in a weird mood today.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own **_**Van Helsing, Sweeney Todd**_** (sob uncontrollably), or any other shows I've written about in the past, mainly anime, as I think I've mentioned before. Life's a bitch that way, isn't it?**

**Anyway, enjoy chapter three**!

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"Are you awake, my dear?" a deep, seductive voice whispered in my ear.

I smiled and shifted my weight a little, breathing in deeply. Letting my eyes flutter open, I looked up into Dracula's black ones. He was leaning over my body, and I was lying on a loveseat. His face was very close to mine. "Are we in Budapest?" I asked, my voice cracking from not having been used in a while.

"Naturally. Tell me now, are you feeling all right?"

I sat up and stared at him. That question had come out of nowhere. "I'm fine."

He smiled and stroked my cheek. "Sometimes waking up from our hypnotism can be… disorienting to humans. You seem to fare rather well."

"I don't see any reason why I shouldn't have," I smiled sweetly and pulled him down to sit beside me, placing my hands on his arm and rubbing my cheek along his shoulder.

He sighed and took a deep breath, burying his face in my hair. "Intoxicating," he mumbled, kissing my right temple and trailing more down my jawline. I got the sense that Dracula was a very sexual creature; it seemed all he did when we were in each other's company was kiss me like this. And I loved it more than anything I have ever loved before.

"When will you make the announcement?" I whispered, gasping as he placed his hands on the small of my back and between my shoulder blades, baring my neck to him, and he kissed the hollow of my throat.

He pulled away from me after a moment more and brushed the flyaway strand of hair that had gotten loose behind my ear. "Not tonight. Three days from now, on All Hallows Eve. I hold a masquerade ball each year for my brethren. I shall mark you as mine, in front of the world of darkness, at midnight." He drew away from me, standing. "And you shall be untouchable."

"To anyone but you?" I whispered, leaning back on my elbows and dwelling on the ghost of his lips on my throat. He hadn't kissed me on the mouth this time.

"To anyone but me," he confirmed. "Now, I have some business to attend to in Budapest. You shall remain here, keeping out of trouble. Human curiosity is… quite dangerous."

"Of course," I agreed, even though I secretly was praying he didn't mean I wouldn't see him for three days. I wanted to see him tomorrow, tonight, as soon as I possibly could. I missed him already, even though he was standing right in front of me. "What am I to do, then, while I'm staying out of trouble?"

He smiled. "This castle has many things for a human to occupy their time with. Although for the time being, I think it would be prudent for you to learn how to dance. I also have a rather extensive library."

I blushed, too humiliated to admit that I had no idea how to read.

Dracula turned to the door in the corner of the vast room and called, "Renata! Akos!"

The door opened and two human figures came gliding into the room, both beautiful, certainly vampires. One was a small girl who couldn't have been more than twelve when she'd been turned, petite and blonde with a childishly pretty face. The other was a tall and slender man with thick, wavy brown hair and a square jaw. He had to be in his mid-twenties at least, when he'd been granted immortality. The man bowed sweepingly, first at Dracula, then at me. The girl curtsied in much the same manner.

"Renata," Dracula said, indicating the girl. "And Akos." He waved his hand towards the man. "Renata shall be your attendant. She knows this castle inside and out. Akos will instruct you in dancing. They are both very aware of your position and will follow any order you give to them without hesitation."

Akos approached me and knelt on one knee before me, taking my hand and kissing it. "My lady," he said humbly. "It is an honor to serve a future bride of our lord."

I was blushing all the way down to my toes by now, I was certain.

Dracula leaned over me and planted a slow, gentle kiss in the center of my forehead. "Fret not, my love," he said smoothly. "I shall return in a few hours."

And he strode out of the room, leaving me alone with two unfamiliar vampires. I pursed my lips and looked at Akos and Renata, my eyes flickering from one to the other. What now?

Akos rose smoothly and offered me his hand. "My lady," he said. "Shall we proceed to the ballroom?"

I supposed there wasn't much for me to do but take his hand and let him lead me to the door. "I suppose Dra… I mean, the master expects me to dance at the announcement party?" I asked, trying to make small conversation as Akos took me down a cavernous hallway. Renata followed us silently. She was looking at me with a sort of longing in her eyes.

"But of course," Akos grinned crookedly. "What sort of princess of the night would you be if you did not know how to dance?"

"Princess?' I scoffed. "I'm no princess."

"Not yet," he said cleverly, chuckling slightly. "But you will be. Even as a human, every vampire shall revere you. They will be loyal to you without hesitation. Once the announcement has been made, the only creature more powerful than yourself shall be our Lord Dracula."

I shuddered.

After we had gone through a few hallways, Akos stopped me a enormous, ornately carved mahogany doors. "Here we are," he smiled, pushing them open. "The ballroom."

I almost had a heart attack. It was, simply put, the most beautiful room I'd ever seen. The floors glistened, mirrors framed with gold hung on every wall. I was reminded once more that vampires had no reflections as I stared into the mirror, two vampires by my side in reality but entirely alone in my reflection. My cheeks were still pink from when Dracula had been kissing me and my hair was slightly rumpled.

"Now, you will have to imagine the music," Akos said, pulling me from my thoughts. I gasped when he placed his hand on my waist and a figurative jolt of electricity ran up my spine. He withdrew at once. I shook my head, indicating I was fine, and waved my hand, conveying to him it was all right, that he could proceed. When he moved forward once more, his motions were much slower, his touch much lighter. It was as though he was afraid he'd break me in half (which he probably could, but only if he was trying to).

His right hand rested on my waist and he took my right hand with his left. "Now, place your free hand on my shoulder," he instructed, and I obeyed. I took a deep breath. I had never been this close to anyone but Dracula since my father's death. It made me nervous. "You'll step forward first," he said, his tone even.

And he taught me to dance. I was amazed by the effortlessness of his every motion, the way dancing was, to him, as natural as breathing. Not that he technically needed to breathe. My own movements were clumsy and awkward, and the best I can say for my dancing is that by the end of our session I had progressed from abysmal, treading on his toes with nearly every step with not a hint of grace, to dreadful, stepping on his toes every several steps and managing to barely achieve scattered scraps of grace as we waltzed.

When the windows displayed night as it had fallen, dots of light littering the dark sky, Akos declared us done for the day and assured me that, though I did not feel the way he did, that I had made "good progress" and would surely grow steadily better as we practiced over the next two days. I was beginning to panic. I had two days to master this skill I had never attempted before, and in two nights' time I was expected to demonstrate it to a dark community, expected to win their hearts and their respect, although their loyalty was guaranteed.

For a moment, I feared that, were I to prove myself inadequate, I would be slaughtered and they would feast upon my blood like fine liquor. I shook myself and forced my mind to return to the present, telling myself my bloody fantasies were both irrational and, for lack of a better term, idiotic.

I realized, through the nervousness twisting in my gut, that I was hungry. Who knew how long it had been since my last meal. I couldn't even be sure how much time had passed since the night of the burning windmill, the night I was spirited away. As far as I could remember, the last scrap of food I'd had was half a small loaf of bread, which I got for cheap since the baker burned it. My dining experiences throughout my life could sadly be described only as little better than savage.

Renata was the one who said something about my mundane humanness, calling to attention my mortal need for things like food. "Akos, you should have let her take a break ages ago," she reproached the older vampire (or older in appearance, at least. How was I supposed to know whether she'd been turned before him or not?). It was the first time she'd spoken in front of me. Her voice was different than I'd imagined it. I'd thought her voice would be high and sweet, vaguely reminiscent of Aleera's. Her tone was deeper and sadder. "Humans are fragile. She's probably starving by now."

Starving, no. I'd gone longer than this without food before. I began to say that I was fine, but Akos showered me with immediate apologies and wouldn't hear a word of my insistence. Renata was at my side in an instant, curtsying, and indicated that I should follow her. I did, out of the ballroom and through yet more hallways. I was getting lost in this labyrinthine castle.

She led me straight to a very empty and, from what I could deduce, mostly unused dining room, in which a small feast, much too much for a scrawny girl like me, awaited. Now, I won't say it wasn't awkward to be the only one eating, especially with two vampires hovering over me continuously inquiring if there was anything else I preferred, but eventually my street urchin instincts kicked in and I stuffed as much into my belly as I could. Hardly ladylike, but as both vampires had, it seemed, long since forgotten proper table etiquette, my lack of any self-restraint whatsoever went widely unnoticed.

After a dinner of richer food than I'd ever laid eyes on before, Renata showed me to the library, where I stood mesmerized, running my hands along the spines of the perfectly arranged books in rows upon rows of shelves, silently mourning that I did not know how to read. Twenty minutes passed, and I finally had enough gall to remove a book from its spot on a shelf and placed it on the table in the library's center, flipping each page carefully so I did not crease them, examining letters and admiring the pictures inside by candlelight.

"You are turning pages far too fast to be properly absorbing the story, my dear," a deep, thickly accented Transylvanian voice informed me amusedly from behind my right shoulder. I jolted violently, startled, and whirled around.

"My lord!" I exclaimed, rushing into Dracula's outstretched arms. Immediately I drew my face towards his, inviting his lips on my neck, on my jaw, on my mouth. He did not kiss me, though.

Instead, he looked at me fondly and nodded towards the book, still open on the table to a page with a painting depicting a battle some fur-clad army on horses fought long ago. The description, I assumed, was below the picture, but I could not read it, so I did not know who the men were or why they were fighting. "Perhaps you like the pictures better than the text?"

I blushed. "I don't know… how," I mumbled, ashamed to admit it. "To read, that is."

"I did not expect you to, no," he told me. "Reading is not an important survival skill in the village of your origin."

I shook my head. I was afraid if I tried to talk I'd suddenly break down. I was quite abruptly very, very sad. I wanted to be able to open a book and know what its contents read. I wanted to be able to decipher and interpret that strange collection of letters, filled with loops and lines and circles with curved tails. I wanted to read about that battle whose picture I could only look at, never interpret. I wanted to read other books, too. Accounts of actual historic events that happened in places I will never see or even dream of seeing. I want to read fairy tales, made-up stories to teach children lessons or romanticize life, which is essentially crappy. I would listen sometimes to mothers telling their children fairy tales in the village, though the same stories were told differently by different mothers and many admitted to not knowing some endings, so they made up their own. I wanted to know the real stories, as they were originally written.

Dracula pulled me back to the present, out of my thoughts, by placing a hand on my chest, feeling my heartbeat as it pulsed. "Your heart rate quickened," he breathed. "Are you upset by something?"

I bit my lip and stared past him, longingly, at the book by way of an answer.

"Ah," he sighed. "Plenty of time for that, my dear. We have an eternity, and my library is not going anywhere. Verona did not know how to read when I turned her, many years ago. She has, I believe, since read every book in this library."

That reassured me somewhat, though I was still aching for the knowledge that was not mine, but Dracula's lips pressed against mine, like I'd been craving for some time, proved a wonderful distraction.

* * *

**And that's Chapter Three! I've been writing it bit by bit all week and here it is, at last, in its completed form! What do you guys think? Is Dracula too OOC, or do you like him as I've written him? It's so difficult to recreate such a complex character. (Try as critics may to bash Richard Roxburgh's performance as Dracula, I maintain the man was flawless in his part.) Also, what's your take on Akos and Renata? I'll be doing more with them in chapters to come, so keep reading! Luminitia will return!**

**Anyway, I love you all, I very much want your reviews, and TELL YOUR FRIENDS about this story if they're Dracula fans. Or Van Helsing friends. Or story fans. Just get the word out there, okay?**

**Phantom, out!**


	4. Impending Peril

**And we're back with Chapter Four! How exciting! It's been a long, crazy week filled with college searches and applications and I am finally sneaking in a bit of time to write this chapter. Now, dear readers, a note on the last chapter; I am, unfortunately, a bit of a brat and I was really upset about only getting one review on it. Perhaps more this chapter? Please? Even a one-word review will do! PLEASE! FOR THE CHILDREN!**

**Ahem.**

**Anyway, enjoy.**

* * *

The room given to me was magnificent. Never, in my entire life, had I dreamed a room like this could actually exist. In my imagination, surely. In reality, absolutely not. I was dazzled by the enormity of the room, the vast expansion of windows lining one of the walls draped with thick, velvet curtains in a deep shade of scarlet, even the rugs sprawled out on the stone floor. But the most incredible thing, to me, was the bed. It was massive, so wide I could lay across it and still have several inches above my head and below my feet before the mattress ended, and so long that two of me, situated one above the other, would have fit comfortably in its expanses.

I have never had a bed. Even when my dad was alive we were poor, sleeping on blankets during the summer and huddling beneath them in the winter, lying on the cold wooden floor. In my barn I had nestled among rotting hay and grass I had collected throughout the spring, often shivering beneath a single blanket I had managed to save from my house before the villagers stormed it, determined, now that its owner was dead, to take everything they could for themselves.

It was a hard life in the village filled with people who had taken everything from me. When I was immortal I would make sure they'd pay me back tenfold for the suffering I had to endure. Starting with the undertaker.

Dracula smiled, watching the way my eyes lit up at the sight of the bed alone. "You find the room to your liking, then?" he asked, amused by my delight.

I started to answer, but the feeling of his lips suddenly in the crook of my neck slowed me down, forced me to think very hard as I tried to concentrate on replying, not losing myself to his kisses. "It's the most magnificent thing I've ever been given," I breathed, closing my eyes and stretching out my neck, giving him an uninterrupted expanse of my skin from the crook of my neck to my jaw line, praying he might bite me, turn me, if I tempted him enough.

Sensing my desire, he chuckled and planted a kiss on my lips instead. "Not tonight, my dear," he said, his tone reminiscent of chastisement, but only slightly. "I have not yet tired of you as you are… blood calling out to me, almost singing for me…"

"You mean you expect to grow tired of me eventually?" I whispered, suddenly entertaining a horrible premonition in which he one day decided he was bored with me and did bite me, but only in order to feast upon every last drop of my blood, which apparently _sang for him_. It made my stomach roll to think that I was so disposable to him, and in that terrible moment, the full realization that I was hit me like an avalanche, bearing down upon me and crushing my body, slamming into my chest so hard that my heart ached and I couldn't breathe.

The feel of his cool, slender hand on my chest pulled me back to the present, lurching me out of my nightmarish fantasy. "Luminitia," he murmured, slowly reaching his other hand towards my face and brushing tears I had not realized had developed from my eyes. "You misunderstand me."

I swallowed down the lump that had lodged itself in my throat and lowered my head, wanting to pull away from him, but something in my chest stopped me. I got the sense that my heart would split in two if I rejected him, even for a moment. "I'm not so sure I did," I mumbled, unable to meet his gaze.

His fingers found my chin and turned my face towards his. "Look at me," he whispered. After a few moments, in which I could not keep my vision from swimming with tears, I did. He looked a little regretful. "I am very fond of my _human_ Luminitia," he assured me softly, gathering my tears with his thumb. "When you are eighteen you will be immortal. I promise you that. But until then…" He smiled lasciviously and kissed my neck again. "I want to relish the wonderful sound of your blood, the pulse of your heart…"

I felt the blood rush to my face in embarrassment.

Dracula chuckled. "Your very human ability to blush," he murmured as he kissed my cheek, very slowly.

The kisses never stopped. And I reveled in them, holding onto each one for as long as I could before I was swept up in the next, enchanted by his lips on my forehead, my cheeks, my neck, my jaw, and especially on my mouth.

And then a thought occurred to me. We were in a room.

Alone.

And there was a very large bed not ten feet away.

My heart rate quickened as I grasped the suddenly very real possibility of having sex, of losing my virginity tonight, to Dracula. In the village I never dreamed of ever having sex. Orphans often times don't get married because they don't have the money to make a life for themselves. The only possible way I used to see for myself to not die a virgin was by falling so low I would have to admit myself to the local brothel, and then–

Well.

Rather than point out my accelerated heart rate like he usually did, Dracula ignored it and swept me, quite literally, off my feet, and it seemed like in one instant we were standing in front of the door and the next he was laying me on the bed, cradling my waist as he leaned his body over mine, his lips trailing down my neck, taking my breath away with every kiss.

I thought I was ready, but when his hands moved to my shoulders and began to slide the fabric on my arms down, I froze. My mouth went dry and my heart began to thud against my chest, telling me this had gone too far, that I was _not_ ready.

And Dracula stopped, just like that. He was suddenly sitting beside me, not crouched on top of me, adjusting his cuffs and brushing a flyaway strand of hair out of his face with his pinkie. I began to breathe again. I hadn't realized I had stopped. "I'm sorry," I whispered as I tentatively sat up, the words almost coming out as a whimper. I was quite abruptly afraid that my rejection had angered him. I hadn't meant to recoil so violently like I had – it was an instinctual reaction to the unknown.

Dracula maintained his air of dignity, that seductive manner that made me constantly crave his attention, as he said, "You were not ready. It was no fault of your own."

I cleared my throat as softly as possible, chewing on my bottom lip, not caring it was ruining what makeup remained on it. "I… I'm not sure what happened…"

Dracula silenced me by pressing his lips to mine, and was I grateful for that. Who knows what nonsense I would have begun to babble? "You do not need to defend yourself," he smiled, amused. His hand found my chest, directly over my heart, feeling my accelerated pulse. "And you do not need to fear me." His lips found my throat. "So many fear me… everybody else fears me. Not you…not my Luminitia…"

And I didn't fear him. I didn't. How could I? He was my savior, the one who rescued me from Hell and raised me up, to a life I had never dreamed was possible. He was going to grant me immortality. He was going to make me so beautiful that mortal men would crawl at my feet, begging me to drink their blood.

"I'm not afraid of you," I gasped, and took the initiative to press my lips to his instead of waiting for him. And I didn't stop. I peppered his jaw with kisses like he did mine, and continued the trail down to his throat before he began to chuckle softly and wrapped his arms around me, pulling me into him so that I was much too close to him for kissing, pressed against his chest.

"There is plenty of time for this," he promised me. "Plenty of time for anything you've ever wanted." Smiling down at me, he informed me, "I have never coupled with a human before. I am quite eager to attempt it."

I took a long, centering breath. "You aren't afraid that you'll… break me?" I whispered, the thought occurring to me as I imagined, in a moment of intense passion, that his strength came out too great and he snapped me in two, like a brittle twig.

"I would never break you," he chuckled, though I felt his embrace loosen cautiously. "And if something went wrong, I wouldn't hesitate in bestowing immortality upon you immediately."

I believed that. I really, truly did. I wanted to say something else, though what it was I wasn't sure. I opened my mouth to speak – some sort of confirmation, I don't know – but the words were lost in an enormous yawn.

Dracula let out a noise of amusement. "I forget that humans need sleep much more often than my kind do," he told me, pulling away and standing up. "Rest now."

"You're leaving?" I asked, biting down on my lip to keep from crying out. I felt so utterly dependant on him that the very thought of being away from him threw me into a state of panic.

"There is still business to attend to," he informed me, twirling a strand of my hair in his fingers. As I blinked back anxious tears, he gently took my shoulders and lowered my body to the mattress. He leaned over and planted a kiss on my forehead. "Don't distress yourself, love," he murmured in my ear. "I'll be back on All Hallows Eve."

And then he vanished, leaving me alone and dreading the next two days without him as blackness crept up on my vision, pulling me into unconsciousness. I knew, somehow, Dracula had done that hypnotism thing to me again, and since there was no use fighting it, I gave myself up and slept.

* * *

I awoke to the sound of splashing water. I sighed, remembering the events of last night – a blur of kissing and softly spoken words, in which I had gotten closer than ever to losing my virginity – and let out a groan, also remembering Dracula wouldn't return until tomorrow night. I let my eyes open and sat up, looking around. My body felt heavy and my eyes were sore, and I realized I'd been crying in my sleep.

The sound of water was coming from the corner or the room, in which sat a bathtub I had not noticed last night – but then, they were vampires. It very well may not have been there last night. Renata stood next to it, pouring buckets of water into the tub. A thin vapor of steam rose from the water as it settled. "Good morning, my lady," she greeted me, and I cringed, still so unused to being addressed with such respect.

"Um… good morning," I mumbled back, swinging my legs over the side of the bed. "What are you doing?"

"The lord made me your attendant," she reminded me simply, emptying another bucket into the tub. "I am here fulfilling my duties thusly."

"Oh," I said lamely, rubbing my eyes. "All right."

I was going to have to get used to this, at least for the year. Verona had said that as a vampire I wouldn't need to go through such human rituals as bathing. I guess vampire skin repelled dirt or something. But until then, I had to grow accustomed to this style of living – vampires hovering around me as I fulfilled my human requirements, bowing at my feet, eager to gain favor with a future bride of Dracula.

Renata, having filled the tub, came over to me and took my hand. "My lady, you slept in your clothes," she pointed out. "Were the gowns in dresser not acceptable?"

"What?" I asked stupidly, looking towards the dresser. "Oh… I didn't even look," I admitted, blushing a little. "I was… with the lord last night, you see, and…"

Her eyes widened. "_Oh_. All right," she said knowingly, although I was sure she had gotten the wrong impression. I blushed even more deeply as she led me to the tub and I, knowing what came next, began to undress. Modesty was obviously not a part of my new life.

Once I'd lowered myself into the tub, Renata positioned herself at my head and began to douse my hair, working the few tangles in it out and sighing enviously. "Your hair is so pretty. Not like mine." She indicated her blonde locks, short and wavy. "I always wanted to grow it out, but I was turned before it got to be as long as I wanted. And it's too thin."

"I think it's cute," I informed her. "I've always wanted to cut my hair. It gets in the way."

"In the way?"

"You know – trying to work. It never stayed tied back in the fields during the harvest season. It was a real nuisance."

"But you don't have to work anymore," she pointed out, starting to wash my hair, massaging my scalp. It felt excellent. "So the way it is now is perfect. It'll stop growing once the lord makes you a vampire, you know. And I hear the master likes long hair."

That was true, I'd bet anything. All three of his brides had long, thick hair. I was suddenly very proud of mine and had the fierce desire to keep it as it was. "You're right," I said. "My hair stays as it is."

Renata slowly tipped my head back so my hair was submerged. After a few moments, I asked, "How old are you, Renata?"

"I'm 79."

I couldn't suppress a laugh. It was amusing, you have to admit. A 79 year-old little girl. "No, I mean, how old were you when you became a vampire?"

"Oh," she smiled. "I was thirteen. I got pneumonia and I was going to die, but my brother changed me so he could save me."

"Your brother was a vampire?"

"He still is. He's been a vampire two years longer than me. He faked his own death, but he told me the truth, coming to visit me at night. And when he found out I was sick, he changed me and brought me with him. Akos was… let's see… twenty-one when he was turned."

"Your brother is Akos?" I exclaimed, snatching up the soap before she could. I could wash myself, definitely. She bit her lip but didn't protest, perching herself on the edge of a stool as I washed my arms and legs.

"Yes. We came to the lord and he made us servants. We live in this palace and take care of it for Lord Dracula, along with a few others. There's a boy who was turned at my age living here. He helps kill the rats, so he's mainly in the cellars."

I shuddered involuntarily. A whole network of vampires in this castle that I was entirely unaware of. I must have showed some outward signs of distress, because Renata said reassuringly, "They've been informed of your status, just as Akos and I were. Should you see them, they will offer you their utmost respect."

I let out a sigh of relief as I set the soap down. Renata hurried to help me out of the bath as I stood up and draped a towel over my shoulders, stretching out her arms so she could reach. She was so tiny. I dried myself off as she ran to the dresser, pulling out dresses made of silk, contemplating which one she should put me in, before deciding on a pale lilac and bounding back to me as I wrapped my hair in the towel. She handed my undergarments to me and I slid them on, glad to be somewhat covered until I was given the clothes and found my midsection was entirely exposed and the long, billowing skirt had a slit up the side so, if I angled myself in just the right way, my entire left leg would be exposed.

Renata clapped her hands in delight. "Oh, it's lovely! I wish the lord were here to see you in it! He'd find you _ravishing_!"

I wished Dracula were here too – admiring my clothing or otherwise. Just so long as he was here.

"Can I do your nails while your hair dries?" Renata asked me, grabbing my hand and examining my fingers. "They could use something a little extra. Maybe a dark blue…"

I let her have her way with me, not caring how I would look since Dracula would not see me today, and as she meticulously painted my fingernails – and then my toenails – she told me about my ball gown, which I would wear tomorrow night for the Halloween Ball and, by default, my unofficial birthday celebration.

"It's an incredible red color, sleeveless, but there's a shawl you can wear with it if you want, and your shoes match it perfectly! And the master told me I could do your hair, and I think if we curled it and pinned it back with some jeweled pins, not all of it, just enough so it stays out of your face, it's be perfect! Your mask is wonderful, it's gold with red feathers and it'll only cover half of your face. And there's even a tiara, encrusted with rubies—"

"Renata?" I interrupted her, not wanting to dwell too much on what I would be wearing tomorrow night. The entire time I was just thinking about what Dracula would think of me in the dress, whether he would find me beautiful or not. "How did Akos become a vampire?"

She hesitated.

"You don't have to tell me. I was just curious."

"No, it's fine. I was just a little surprised by the question. Actually, tomorrow is the 68th anniversary of his turning. You see, the wives raided Budapest before the ball – back then it was only Verona and Aleera – and Aleera got him. But instead of killing him, she decided to change him. Because he was so handsome. The lord was very angry for some time. He accused her of being unfaithful to him, though of course, Akos and Aleera never had any sort of relationship. She just changed him and set him loose. Lord Dracula calmed down after about a decade, but Akos still makes himself scarce when Aleera visits this castle."

I tried to imagine Dracula angry, and shuddered. He displayed such passion in romance – I imagined he was very passionate in anger as well.

Renata applied my makeup and declared me ready to greet the day, and she led me through the winding halls towards the dining room, where a feast awaited me, much like last night. I was going to have to speak to someone about this food situation. It was excessive. I mean, this morning all I had was a handful of blueberries, a couple of strawberries, and half a scone. The rest was carried out, and I hated seeing food go to waste like that.

Akos showed up as I was getting out of my chair and he led me in a morning of dance lessons in the ballroom that I was so infatuated with the previous evening. Something in my brain finally clunked into place and I suddenly understood the waltz, mastering it. Well, maybe not _mastering_. It still wasn't as graceful as it could have been, but good enough for Akos, delighted with my progress, to declare I was ready to begin learning the tango. And then dance lessons became difficult again.

* * *

Renata saved me from dance lessons by announcing it was noon and therefore I needed to eat. I still wasn't very hungry, but I was eager for a break from constant twirling and counting beats as I tried not to tread on Akos's toes.

Halfway through the meal – I was eating very, very slowly to stall for time – Renata stood up from her chair near the door without warning and rushed out of the room, and I heard her muttering under her breath about being inconsiderate and how inconvenient it all was.

I stared after her, my mouth hanging open (there was no food in my mouth, thank goodness). I shook myself and turned to Akos, wildly confused. "Did I do something to upset her?" I asked.

He cracked a grin and laughed slightly. "Oh, it wasn't you. Someone's at the door."

I stared at him. I hadn't heard a knock, a bell, anything. And even though I was utterly lost in this castle, I was very sure we were not anywhere near the front doors of it.

I suppose my reasoning was too easy to figure out, too human, because Akos, smiling widely at me, said, "We have much keener senses than humans, you know."

I nodded, lost for words as I wondered who was calling on a castle in Budapest run by vampires. I could only guess at another vampire. Surely not a wife. Unless Dracula brought them with him here, I guessed that they remained in the Transylvania castle. And besides, Dracula wasn't going to be back until tomorrow night.

Akos stood as well and offered me his hand. "Well, my lady, shall we return to our lessons? I have the feeling you may just gain the knack for the tango this afternoon."

* * *

As it turned out, I did get better, though I still occasionally stepped on his feet. I'm positive I would have managed to figure out what I was doing wrong had we not been interrupted.

It happened about an hour into our afternoon lesson. Akos was insistent that I attempt a dip, reassuring me that he would not drop me as I had been sure he would do – as a joke more than anything, because to be honest, he seemed like the type of guy who might do that – and he had finally persuaded me into trying.

I was in the most awkward position ever, my right leg wrapped around his right leg as he kneeled with his right leg outstretched to match the extent of my left and cradling my back in a dip that literally popped my spine as I held onto the sleeve of his shirt for dear life, when I heard Renata's frantic voice from outside the room, arguing with a deep, unfamiliar male one, in thickly accented German.

"My lord, please! The master doesn't want her disturbed before the ball –!"

"Nonsense! If I want to offer my compliments to his future bride then I will do so, and no child will stop me!"

"But, sir, I'm telling you, this is a very special circumstance and Lord Dracula doesn't want anyone but the servants here to know—!"

"The circumstances can't be all that special! It's not like she's still—!"

A man strode into the room, tall and handsome, about the same age as Dracula – physically, at least, since I couldn't tell you in the slightest how long he'd been a vampire – with sandy colored hair and eyes black as ink. When he saw me he froze, and he stopped midsentence.

Now, I assumed he paused because Akos and I were positioned in the most awkward position, reminiscent of an embrace – a very uncomfortable one in which I was being manhandled – but it became abundantly clear very quickly that wasn't the case.

"_Human_?!" he roared, his eyes flashing a hideous green and his jaw extending, his teeth growing longer and sharper as he yelled. "She is still human?!"

Akos released me, propping me upright and moving in front of me like my bodyguard. "As you can obviously see," he said hostilely, glaring at the furious vampire.

"What is the meaning of this?!" he demanded, pointing an accusing finger at me. "She cannot still be human! It is an abomination! An insult to our kind!"

"She will be our kind eventually, I assure you," Akos said coldly. "However, the lord has deemed the circumstances special and has his own reasons for refraining, at the moment, from bestowing immortality to her."

"No vampire with any dignity will accept that… _that _as a fresh queen of our world! She must be turned at once!"

My face turned red with anger. He just called me a _that_. Like I was some disgusting thing he'd found dead in a corner.

"Lord Dracula will turn her when he sees fit," Renata said timidly. "Please, Bernhardt, return tomorrow for the ball. The lord himself shall explain."

He glared at both Renata and Akos like they were the bane of his very existence, and then he looked past Akos at me. I expected his face to twist into a look of rage so pure, so great, that my nightmares would be haunted by his expression.

The smile he gave me was much, much worse than that.

"Very well," he said calmly, still watching me with that smile on his lips. "So she is human. How very… enticing."

I gulped.

Bernhardt – I assumed that was his name – turned back to Renata. "I see no need to return to Berlin for a single evening. I shall stay here until tomorrow's masquerade."

"Yes, sir, of course," Renata breathed, biting her bottom lip as though she was very uncomfortable with that scenario. "I'll lead you to a room you can use."

"Please," he said pleasantly, glancing back at me. He winked.

A shudder racked my body and I began to tremble. I could feel that something very, very bad was about to happen.

I could only hope Dracula would return early.

* * *

**Done! It took me a while to write this for a few reasons. 1. It's long. 2. I have been inundated with school work and college essays for a week.**

**Okay, people… review. I'm a brat, remember? I want to say three reviews will be enough to get me to post chapter five (evil grin). Until then, dear readers, farewell!**

**Phantom, out!**


	5. Unadulterated Terror

**It has a been a long time since I've written a chapter for this story. Honestly, I wanted to get to the ball by Halloween, but with the craziness in my life, that did not happen. I apologize. My days have been filled with English papers, filming assignments, college apps, and Halloween planning. My Mrs. Lovett costume was… interesting to say the least.**

**I need a break from school. Anyway, enjoy chapter five**!

* * *

The Bernhardt incident, needless to say, cut my dancing lessons short. Renata led the German vampire out of the ballroom and Akos, sensing my rising state of panic, placed his hands on my shoulders and began reassuring me that I was not going to be attacked, eaten, etc. "My lady, you don't need to worry," he tried telling me. "Bernhardt is a very old vampire, turned by Lord Dracula himself. He will not betray the master."

I shook my head, my breath coming out in short gasps as I swatted his hands away from my shoulders. "He hates me," I breathed, mortified by my encounter with Bernhardt still. "He hates that I'm human. Oh, no. Oh, no. He hates me and he doesn't want me human. Shit, Akos, he's going to try to turn me himself! Or kill me!"

"He will do nothing of the sort. Primarily because the others employed in this castle and myself will not allow him to. Lord Dracula gave us specific instructions regarding your safety, and should you be threatened we are to attack first, ask questions later."

That actually did reassure me somewhat, but I was still nervous. Bernhardt was somewhere in the castle, and I knew he had to be planning something. The way he had acted when he'd seen me, and that malicious smile…

I shuddered. I needed a distraction. Desperately. "Akos?" I asked quietly, trying to stop myself from shaking. "You know how to read, right?"

* * *

Five hours later I had the alphabet memorized and had no difficulty reading simple, three-letter words. A start, definitely a start. Akos was an excellent teacher. He teased me that if I put the effort into dancing that I did into reading, I might very well be a force to be reckoned with in the ballroom, but seeing as how I had no interest in dancing but a very strong desire to read, I rebuked him, though I was laughing while I did so.

I almost forgot about Bernhardt until Renata came huffily into the library, griping about him. "It's such an inconvenience," she pointed out irritably. "I've gotten Orfeo to agree to be his attendant, but neither are none too happy about it. I get the feeling that Bernhardt's plotting something."

It was official. I was going to die.

Renata moved so quickly to my side that I missed the movement entirely, even though I had been looking right at her. I was very excited to be able to do that. I only had a year before I could…

"My lady," she said, taking my hand and pulling me towards the door. "Dinner is waiting for you in the dining hall."

"I'm not hungry," I said, shaking my head and pulling my hand back.

"But–"

"Really, Renata, I'm not. It's fine – I used to eat less food in a week than what I put away per meal in this castle. I just want to go back to my room and sleep." Or hide, rather.

She hesitated, but complied. "Alright," she said. "Due to the circumstances, I suppose that's understandable. I'll accompany you."

I didn't object. Any vampiric protection I could get at the moment I would have to use, and to the fullest extent. Especially with Bernhardt lurking somewhere around…

When we arrived at my bedroom, I didn't want to do anything but fall onto the bed and sleep until tomorrow night, when Dracula would return and have a firm grip on my shoulders all evening, throughout the ball. I was turning seventeen tomorrow. I was being introduced to the world of darkness as Dracula's betrothed tomorrow.

So many things were going to happen to me. I was getting very scared. Add Bernhardt to the equation, and I was going to be a ball of nerves and jumpy at the slightest sound until Dracula was back and I was in his arms once more.

I sat down on the bed and buried my face in my hands.

"My lady?" Renata asked.

I shook my head. "I'm worried, Renata," I whispered. "Tomorrow is supposed to be the second-best day of my life. But I'm not even excited for it. All I can think about is Bernhardt and what he wants to do to me."

"It's going to be fine," she said resolutely, opening the wardrobe at the end of the room and pulling out a long pale blue nightgown. "No one in this castle will let him anywhere near you. Akos is downstairs organizing maximum security for you through the night and all tomorrow downstairs. And Orfeo swore to me he'd raise the alarm if Bernhardt so much as mentioned you."

I didn't know who Orfeo was, and quite honestly, being guarded by a bunch of vampires I had never seen before was not making me feel any better.

I groaned. "Is there any possibility of the lord coming back early?"

"I'm afraid not," Renata sighed, tugging on my hand and pulling me to my feet. "If the master were here, Bernhardt wouldn't dare to even look at you, let alone…" she trailed off. I didn't take that as a good sign.

I dressed myself in the gown and ignored everything else Renata was telling me I should do – brush my hair, wash my face, other things of that ilk – and burrowed beneath the covers of the bed, wanting little more than to sleep and sleep and sleep until I woke up in the center of the ballroom, cradled in Dracula's arms and completely protected.

Sleep did not come so easily.

I tossed and turned for the better part of an hour, plagued by visions of Bernhardt advancing upon me, murder in his eyes. And then blood. So much blood.

When I finally did go to sleep, the nightmares were horrific, and I awoke with a start, able to remember nothing but the gleam of razor-sharp fangs and blood like scattered rose petals dotting the floor. Renata, her expression filled with concern, was leaning over me, biting her bottom lip. "Luminitia?" she whispered.

It was the first time she'd ever said my name and not called me "my lady." I liked it so much better than the formal address. "Nightmare," I choked out with a shudder, sitting up. "Sorry. I'm fine."

"You haven't been sleeping at all, have you? I only just sensed your heartbeat slowing down five minutes ago, but it was still going far too fast."

Nothing escaped those keen vampire senses, did it? "I can't sleep," I finally admitted. "I'm terrified of sleep. I keep seeing blood." She didn't offer a reply. I wanted her to suggest something. I wanted to sleep so badly. "Can you do that hypnotism thing?" I asked. "Dracula kept doing it to me. It helped so much."

She balked. "Oh, no. The master is very skilled. His hypnotism is perfect. It sends humans to sleep, nothing more, nothing less. Mine is… it needs work. I would only give you nightmares. Nightmares far more horrific than those you've been having. And you wouldn't be able to wake from them until the hypnotism wore off." She paused, hesitating, and then admitted. "People always wake up before they die in their dreams. But if you can't wake up, you really do die. Your soul just… leaves. If you died in your dreams, you'd still technically be alive, but all that would be left of you is your body. _You_ wouldn't be here anymore. The lord would never forgive me."

I shuddered. That was the last thing I ever wanted to get into. I couldn't imagine it. Where did my soul go? To capital-s Somewhere? I doubted the existence of Heaven; or rather, I doubted that God would accept me into it.

Having allied with vampires, maybe Satan would have me instead.

"I could get Akos," Renata suggested after a few moments. "His hypnosis isn't perfect either, and horrible in its own right."

"What do you mean?"

"The dreams he brings are so wonderful that waking up from them is like living a nightmare. Or so I'm told. Maybe you don't favor that, either. Several people who've experienced his hypnotism were driven to suicide."

I'd already lived a nightmare. For nine years, I'd worked myself to the bone and only barely avoided starvation, selling anything I could that was worth selling, living a life where food was the only object of my desire, every day. The past three days alone are the best I've ever had, making every day of my life before them seem like Hellish nightmares.

I could handle this reality, even if Akos's hypnosis was wonderful beyond belief. "Fetch him," I whispered.

Renata vanished for a mere ten seconds and reappeared in a flash near the wardrobe. "I've asked Gellert to find him."

"Who's Gellert?"

"We've had guards stationed outside your door. Gellert and Ambroise volunteered at once. They're very devoted to the master. They won't let anyone through that door that bears you any ill will."

There were two vampires outside my door and I hadn't even known about it. I felt like I was going to be sick.

When the door opened, Renata let out a feral snarl that would have been more appropriate coming from a ferocious beast and leapt in front of me with her arms stretched out, poised to strike. I almost screamed myself This was a thirteen year old girl (by sight, not age) ready to spring at any attacker. It was terrifying.

Akos came into the room and Renata relaxed. "Oh, good," she said, backing away from me. Gesturing towards me, she said, "She can't sleep. She wants your hypnotism."

"Not yours?" Akos asked teasingly, grinning crookedly.

"You know what could happen. The master would obliterate me if anything happened to her," Renata said contemptuously, sneering at him.

Akos chuckled and sat on the edge of my bed. "So, you can't sleep?"

I looked him in the eye. "There is a psychotic vampire lurking somewhere in this castle with malicious intent towards me and there are vampires that I have never seen before stationed at my door. Of course I can't sleep."

He was still grinning. I had probably amused him. "I can help with that. Lie down."

I did. I was in no mood to object. All I wanted was sleep and he could bring it to me.

He placed his hand on my back. "You're sure you want this?" he asked suddenly. I only nodded. He sighed and said, "I fear you will regret waking up."

"It'll be fine. I've lived through Hell before – this in-between world will keep me sane. I know it," I whispered, only half telling the truth. I had no idea if that were really the case, though I had confidence in the theory.

"I do not want to see you hurting."

"It'll be my own fault if I am," I said. "Please, Akos. I just want to sleep."

He let out a long, ragged breath and covered my eyes with his hand. "Sleep well, then, my lady."

As darkness crept upon me, I heard him murmuring in my ear. "Everything will be fine. You are safe here."

* * *

I woke up sobbing.

Renata and Akos were both still in the bedroom, standing near the wardrobe. When I sat up, tears streaming down my face, it was Akos who was at my side in an instant, looking at my eyes and placing his hand on my forehead. "My lady? Do you feel all right? Are you at all disoriented?"

I shook my head and pulled away, wiping at my eyes. Akos exchanged a concerned glance with Renata. "Did the hypnotism not work? Was it nightmares instead?" he kept asking me questions, kept checking my eyes as though numerous looks into them would yield different results.

"No! Nothing like that," I mumbled, my voice trembling. "It was a good dream. The master was there, and we were in the ballroom, and then…" I trailed off. I wanted to keep my dream to myself for two reasons. The first was that I selfishly wanted it to be mine alone. The second was that it was mortifyingly embarrassing to even consider speaking aloud. "It was the best dream I've ever had," I finally said.

Renata was still very obviously worried. "Then why are you crying?"

"Because it'll never happen," I muttered, curling my knees into my chest. Coupling with Dracula as a human… even though he said he was curious to try, I doubted he was serious. I was a fragile human and he was the lord of vampires. How could we couple? The very idea was absurd.

Akos, his expression telling me he understood the gist of what my dream had been about, cracked a slight grin. "Well, happy birthday at any rate."

Renata sighed and came forward, pulling back the bed covers and taking my hand, leading me to the tub in the corner, which was filled already. Looking back at Akos, she barked. "Get out of here!"

He vanished.

I tried my hardest to forget my wonderful dream as I submerged myself in the water, as Renata washed my hair, as I bathed myself and then crawled out of the tub. But no matter what, I couldn't forget. I kept dwelling upon the vivid images I had seen in my sleep, even the feelings I had conjured up during it. The feel of Dracula cradling my hips, pressing his lips to mine, his breath on my neck as he murmured in my ear.

I had woken up just before he'd sunk his fangs into my neck.

Just before he'd turned me.

I placated myself, keeping myself from dwelling excessively on the dream, by reminding myself Dracula would return tonight. It was All Hallow's Eve, and I was officially seventeen.

My dress was green and gold. It made my eyes so vibrant that I was amazed when I saw my reflection. I almost refused to believe it was me in the mirror.

I did not want to eat breakfast, but I swallowed down a few bites of food so that Renata and Akos would not worry any further for me, and Akos and I returned to the ballroom for my last few hours of dance lessons. We started with a waltz, which went exceptionally well, and went straight into the tango, and I shocked myself when I got so carried away I entered into a dip without a second thought. And we kept going from there.

Lunch was a short affair. I nibbled on a slab of ham and stuffed a roll into my mouth and we were back in the ballroom within fifteen minutes. We continued. And it was spectacular.

Everything was spectacular, in fact, until the screaming started, coming from just outside the door. Male voices in pain. After a few seconds, they went quiet.

Akos froze, staring at the door in horror. "Gellert?" he called.

My heart was pounding in my chest. My mouth was dry. I was holding onto Akos so tightly my knuckles were white. I couldn't breathe.

When I heard Renata's shrieks of pain, my knees buckled. "Orfeo!" she began to scream. "He killed Orfeo! Take our lady and run! Akos, run!"

She went silent after that.

And the door burst open.

Bernhardt did not look like he had just murdered three, maybe four other vampires. He was pristine, not a hair out of place. His expression was passive as he shut the door behind him. Akos was clutching me tightly, both arms around me, like a protective barrier.

Bernhardt smiled. "Oh, what a touching sight. A dog of Dracula, thinking he can save a human girl."

"The girl shall not be murdered, Bernhardt," Akos snarled.

"Who said anything about murder?" the German vampire said. "The eradication of humans is not _murder_. It is _dining_."

I was crying. I hadn't realized it before now, but I was. I was so terrified there was nothing for me to do but cry. Bernhardt was going to kill me, and maybe Akos, too. Probably Akos too.

And I would never see Dracula again.

"If you are so adamant that you should kill another tonight, Bernhardt, it will be me. Do not touch the girl," Akos said dangerously.

"Ah, Akos," Bernhardt sighed, taking a slow step forward. "Why would the loss of yet another vampire appeal to me? Give me the girl now – and you may just walk away still living."

"_Never_."

"Akos," I whispered, clutching his shirt desperately. "Just… just do as he says. He'll only kill us both if you don't give me up. At least you can walk away."

"Listen to the human girl, Akos," Bernhardt crooned, advancing slowly upon us. "You know she speaks the truth."

"I will not abandon our master's betrothed when her life is being threatened, especially by the likes of you," Akos spat. "You are a disgrace to all vampires, going against our lord's wishes. He, who gave you your eternal life!"

Bernhardt began to laugh. "Perhaps you have not been alive long enough to realize our true nature, Akos. Loyalty and kinship means little to us in the end. All we desire is blood. And that girl – hers will be spectacular. I will give you one last chance. Step away from the girl."

"_You bastard_!"

Bernhardt grinned. "So be it."

He lunged. I screamed.

Akos was knocked away from me, and the force of it threw me across the room. I hit my head on the marble floor so hard my vision went blurry. My head was screaming. When blood began to drip down into my eyes, I knew it was serious.

It was blurry, but I could barely see Akos and Bernhardt locked in a battle so deadly my heart felt like it was going to tear through and leap from my chest. It lasted mere seconds, ending with Akos pinned to the wall by two swords from armor displays in the room's corners, the blades running clean through his shoulders, keeping him alive but useless to do anything.

Bernhardt, his eyes scintillating with an eager glint, turned to me. "I do not understand why Dracula does not just kill you," he said, grinning. "Your blood is like a symphony. I can hear it surging in your veins. And the scent! The most delectable I've found in over three hundred years!"

Akos was still screaming. Not from pain. He was pleading. Over and over again, "Don't kill her!"

I was going unconscious from the pain in my head, from blood loss. "Why… why are you doing this?" I whimpered.

He grabbed my left arm and yanked me to my feet, keeping me standing even though my legs weren't strong enough to hold me at the moment. "Because I hate to lose."

He opened his jaws wide and his teeth transformed into glistening fangs. I shut my eyes and screamed Dracula's name.

* * *

I remember a waterfall of glass from one end of the room and a vicious, unearthly scream of rage as an enormous, bat-like rocketed through the window, smashing it to bits, and tackled Bernhardt. I couldn't see clearly, but my ears worked just fine. I heard other monstrous cries of indescribable fury and Bernhardt's screams of agony, and little by little I lost consciousness. I was saved. But I was still terrified.

And finally the screams stopped. I could barely see a thing through the blood dripping into my eyes. The bat creature turned to me and began to shrink into something with a human form, approaching me. I was lifted into the air, held by two strong arms. Very familiar arms. Dracula.

I flinched when I realized it. "Luminitia," I heard him murmur, and something warm and wet slid over the spot I'd hit my head. The pain slowly numbed, and my vision began to come back. The ballroom was in ruins, curtains torn and windows shattered, armor lying scattered and in pieces on the floor. Akos had freed himself from the wall and was pulling the swords from his shoulders, grimacing. And in the center of the room, lying in bits and pieces on the floor, an arm here, a hand there, was Bernhardt.

I looked away, burying my face in Dracula's chest. I was shaking like a leaf in a storm and my heart was still racing and there were still tears streaming down my cheeks. "Luminitia," I heard Dracula repeat. "It's fine, my dear. He's gone."

I let out a watery gasp. His embrace tightened. "You don't have to afraid of him any longer. Luminitia, look at me. Did he hurt you any further?"

I shook my head and looked up at him. His black eyes were calm, unconcerned. I didn't understand it. I had nearly died and he wasn't worried. Maybe because there had never been any real danger. It didn't matter. He was back here, holding me. "I thought I was never going to see you again," I whispered.

His hand was over my heart, his lips were on my neck. "I would consider that unacceptable," he said. I could hear him smiling.

I craned my head so our lips would meet, and experienced the most wonderful, longest kiss we'd shared yet. I was this man's. He was mine.

"We have a ball to attend tonight, my dear," he informed me between kisses.

"Where?" I mumbled. "The ballroom's been destroyed."

Chuckling, he replied. "You think that matters to vampires?" He planted a kiss on the center of my forehead. "You shall be announced tonight as my betrothed. It begins in two hours. I suggest you go now with Renata to prepare."

I gasped and looked towards the door. Sure enough, she was standing there. I almost cried. I thought for sure she had been killed. I rushed towards her and hugged her. She laughed. "I'm all right," she said. "I got away. I flew from the castle and met the master a few miles from here. I told him what was happening and he was gone."

I was smiling, too. Everything was really going to be okay. "I'd like to see that ball gown now," I said. "The red one you told me about."

She grinned. "Oh, you'll look so wonderful!"

She kept talking about the dress and I listened until Dracula's voice called my name. "Luminitia."

I turned. He smiled. "Happy seventeenth birthday, my dear."

As Renata led me down the hall, I was blushing from head to toe and ear to ear.

* * *

**Fin! Long one, but finished at last! (Heavy sigh). Chapter six will be out in probably a couple weeks. I have got to write for my anime fanfic tonight and then focus on both Sweeney Todd fics. On the bright side: My applications for college are officially all out. Now to wait for acceptance letters.**

**So, review if you liked this chapter, and I'll see you in the next one!**

**Love you all and thanks for reading!**

**Phantom, out!**


	6. All Hallows Eve

**It was never my intention for such an extensive hiatus, and I apologize. Life has gotten in the way more times than I care to count, and much of my attention was focused on another of my fanfictions, which I finished recently. And now, since I've graduated from high school and have no more finals to study for (until college, of course), I can focus more energy on this, and **_**Doctor Who**_** stories. This is where it gets into that M rating… this is my third attempt at a lemon, and I am eager to write it. **

**Also, I was looking over my reviews, and someone mentioned Renata's name being from Twilight… I can assure you, it most certainly is not. Is there even a Renata in that series? I certainly didn't know about it! If anything, it's a variation of **_**Renevatia**_**, the name of a ship from the movie **_**The Island**_**. Actually, I chose all the names for my own characters doing research on exotic names and their meanings. Luminitia, of course, means "little light," Renata means "rebirth," Akos means "white falcon," Bernhardt means "bold as a bear," and so on and so forth. I like to think character names have back stories… or, at least, really cool meanings :)**

**And so, after a several month absence, Luminitia and Dracula return at last for the Masquerade Ball. Happy birthday to our favorite human and let the show begin!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. Stephen Sommers is just nice enough to let me play with his characters.**

* * *

I found myself lost in a sea of painted faces and lithe bodies, my gaze falling upon unnatural, grotesque, and enchanting features all in the same room. Everywhere I turned I was greeted by false grins and deceiving sneers.

I hadn't expected the masquerade ball to be so disorienting. Guests had flooded into the castle faster than I could comprehend; it seemed as though empty floor space summoned elegantly clad men and women eager to begin the festivities. Though, of course, when each guest was a vampire, such inhuman speed was hardly surprising.

Some of the guests were more boisterous than others, making their presence apparent, and others seemed content simply to be a part of the crowd, admiring the magnificence of the palace ballroom with envious gazes. Wherever I passed, I turned heads, be them those of the bolder guests or those minding their own business. Being the only human in a hall filled with the undead can have that effect; being the girl on the arm of the undisputable King of the Night even more so.

I had been sure that wearing a mask would help me to blend into the sea of paper faces hiding the true countenances of the vampires, but the veneer did little to satisfy my timidity, as the amount of attention I attracted was hardly diminished. If anything, I stimulated further cause for curiosity from vampires eager to look upon the face of the girl who would join their royal family in a little over a year's time.

"Your heartbeat tonight is erratic, my dear." The soft voice at my ear jostled me, pulling me from my thought and averting my attention away from the crowd. I turned to look into the amusement etched into my fiancée's expression, my green eyes surely shining through the stark black contrast of my mask to betray my unspoken fears. His own mask was gold and molded as though to imitate the wings of an angel; and while he may be my personal guardian seraph, I know the truth is far from, and easily saw the beautiful irony of it all. Dracula's lips turned up in a smile and he reached towards my face to twirl a tendril of hair that had escaped my pinioned curls around a finger. His hand traveled downward, slithering past my exposed collarbone and coming to rest between my breasts, his hand covering the seam of my plunging neckline. "There's no need to be nervous."

My heart's pronounced thrumming always betrayed everything before I wanted it to be known. I dearly hoped that, as a vampire when my heartbeat would no longer be a concern, I could achieve aloofness. But with that telltale beat in my chest there was no point in even attempting to lie and merely claim to be in awe. "I think it would be impossible not to be," I admitted sheepishly, shrinking into Dracula's side as the eyes of a vampire masked by a menacing visage met mine.

We were passing faces too quickly for me to marvel at any one mask for too long, but it was quite obvious the All Hallows Eve masquerade ball of the undead was an occasion to end all occasions. Even though I was offered only scant glances as Dracula strode through the crowd, two of my footsteps matching each one of his, I knew I had never before seen such extravagance. Flashes of silver and gold I had no doubt was real gleaming on nearly every face, massive jewels glimmering on gowns and at throats, even woven into hair, satin and silk and lace in such vibrant colors I was almost unable to believe I was awake… this was the world of the night in all its splendor, and now I was a part of it. The thought alone made a shiver dance up my spine.

Dracula halted at the hall's center, placing us at the very heart of the crowd and forcing me to endure the curious stares from masked faces assaulting me at every angle. There was no escape from them here. As if the sound of my own heart and the scent of the blood in my veins wasn't enough to prominently display my humanity, my cheeks flushed pink to reveal my insecurity to the world. Yet another thing I will not miss when I am a vampire – without blood, there will be never be physical evidence of my discomfiture revealed to outsiders.

I almost wished I was anywhere else so that the unpleasant feeling of eyes boring into me would cease, but the sensation of Dracula's cool fingertips caressing my cheek banished any thoughts of being away. "Such irrational fears," Dracula breathed, tracing my jaw line. "I can see them in your eyes."

My skin tingled deliciously with every touch, and as I allowed it to consume me, the ballroom faded into little more than color and noise with no apparent meaning, and all that mattered was Dracula and his gaze, those black eyes piercing my very soul in a way I did not find unwelcome.

Dracula's hand withdrew from my face to settle on my waist, and he pried me off his arm to clutch my hand in his free one, keeping me at a respectable distance. I wanted to refuse the gap of space between us, but something stopped me from uttering the words. Challenging the Master of the Night in a room of vampires would be hardly wise.

"Shall I now test Akos's teaching skills?" Dracula asked slyly, laying his hand on my waist with a feather-light touch that sent trembles coursing through my limbs. "Dance with me, Luminitia."

I was appalled that he could demand such a thing of me in a crowded hall without any music playing, but before the protest on my lips had a chance to manifest as sound the orchestra arranged extravagantly on an upraised platform in the corner of the hall struck up a symphony that I shuddered to hear. Music, I realized with a jolt. I had never heard such wonderful sounds! The only instrument I'd ever heard was an ill-tuned fiddle, and although I'd been enchanted by the exotic sounds it made, it had hurt my ears and grown painful to listen to after several minutes. Such an instrument had been abysmal compared to _this_. This music made me _feel _– staccatos and legatos woven together and wrapping around me, igniting a fire in my core that blazed abruptly to an inferno and stole all rational thought… such enchantment I had never experienced before, and lord, I didn't ever want to be without it again! How had I survived seventeen years ignorant of this, true music?!

I was not allowed to stay frozen and focus on the music, however; Dracula coaxed me smoothly into a waltz before an objection even flickered in my mind, and although I was terrified, I held my own. Perhaps Dracula inspired a dormant grace to life inside of me. I was far from fluid in my motions, concentrating excessively on every step and each twirl and forcing myself to stare at his throat rather than up into his eyes. I was terrified that if his gaze met mine I would see disappointment staring back at me; frightened that he would find me inadequate. And even if he didn't look at me like that, a mere glance from him would completely shatter my concentration and my waltz would fall apart.

It was a while before I realized that we were moving much faster than we had been at the beginning. The tempo had been subtly increasing, and I was beginning to struggle with keeping up. My mind moved too fast for my feet to follow, and at an undead masquerade, I realized that this music could only grow rapider. Vampires wouldn't be satisfied for long with such a human pace; they'd need to pick it up to keep things entertaining. But I was human, and I couldn't begin to hope to match a vampire's speed. I started to miss steps before I could even comprehend I'd made a mistake.

I had never taken Dracula for an especially compassionate man, but after a few of my fumbled steps came to pass and I was growing visibly frustrated, he suddenly lifted me off the floor, swaying my body in the proper directions. He was holding me up using only the hand on my waist and the hand clutching mine, displaying his unfathomable strength to my regard. At last, I dared to meet his gaze, appalled. He held my stare, combating my shock with amusement. "It will only grow faster," he breathed in my ear as we spun, sending shivers down my spine. "And it will not be possible for you to keep up." He was so casual, so collected… he was acting like he didn't have me suspended in the air, holding me just high enough for the hem of my ball gown to brush against the floor, hiding from the guests the fact that I was no longer able to dance their waltz.

Dracula was right, of course; the tempo steadily increased until the notes each instrument elicited collapsed into the next with barely enough time to comprehend which note had been played before it. I submitted my body willingly to Dracula's effortless guidance, relying on him to maintain the image we had created for those surrounding us and trusting that he wouldn't let me fall.

The vampires spinning around us in the crowd began to blur at the edges in my line of sight, further proof of the quickening pace until all that existed outside my waltz with Dracula was a swirl of colors, and even concentrating on any one person offered me no more than a momentary glimpse of a mask. I was so caught up in the music that I lost myself in the moment, and I began to forget to listen to it as much as feel it, and when the music halted on an abrupt chord that was met with silence apart from my gasping breaths, I was quite appalled.

I had no time to collect myself before I was swept up in the next mesmerizing, breathless moment. Dracula set me down and his hand wandered from my waist to my cheek, caressing my face before cupping it between his palms and claiming my lips with a kiss that sent tremors racking my body as the world around us exploded into stars more intense than any I've experienced before. I lost myself to it only too willingly, and was more than a little disappointed when he ended it by pulling away.

"You are very beautiful," Dracula whispered in my ear, sending shivers down my spine, brushing a strand of hair away from my neck and leaning to brush his lips ever-so-softly against the pulse point there. "Midnight is only an hour away."

"We can't make the announcement early?" I whispered in a tenor dangerously close to a beg as I shuddered, overcome with longing for him. What a sensation true desire was, and I found myself its victim for the first time.

Dracula chuckled, drawing away from me and offering me a long look into his eyes. "Only an hour," he repeated. "One hour. And then I make you mine."

I sighed, folding my arms around his waist and resting my cheek on his chest as we swayed back and forth, the orchestra beginning to play a slow, mournful tune. He wrapped his arms around my small frame, still chuckling. "Come now, my dear. It is not so long to wait; not when we have all eternity stretched before us."

All eternity… I did like the sound of that.

* * *

I don't remember the announcement nearly as much as I remember the events that took place after the ball. I can vaguely recall standing next to Dracula, clinging to his arm, on a balcony overlooking the marble, mirrored hall. I remember having every eye on me. I can't for the life of me remember what was said to make them accept me as their future Queen of the Night. Only one part of Dracula's declaration stood out in my mind; the moment an entire hall of vampires knelt down in reverent acceptance of me, a mere human.

But I remember every detail of what came next.

I was in Dracula's arms before I could comprehend what we were doing, my arms around his neck to eliminate the feel of being about to fall. I didn't need to ask where we were going; I knew. There would be no refusal from me this night; oh, no. Hesitations, perhaps, but no refusal as we approached the true pinnacle of the night. My birthday may have been over when the clock struck midnight, but I was about to receive my gift; I would accept it wholeheartedly.

He was moving inhumanly fast in a part of the castle I had never been in and had no time to admire. Dracula was obviously growing impatient… and surprisingly enough, so was I.

The room we stopped in was lit by various candles in their holders and a flickering fire radiating warmth throughout the room. Dracula set me down near the hearth and I stood on trembling legs. I knew what was going to happen… and I wanted it. I wanted him.

Dracula seated himself in the armchair by the bed, unbuttoning his cuffs and kicking off his shoes. I removed my heels in similar fashion. With a brazen determination I didn't know I possessed, I crossed the room and went to him, gathering the crimson skirt of my dress in my fists and straddling his lap so my knees were on either side of his body, fingers shaking as they went to his collar and began undoing his tie. I could feel the growing hardness of him through the layers of material separating us.

He captured my lips with his before I could pull his tie off, and I lost myself in the strange phenomena. He was dead, in a manner of speaking; he should be cold. And yet in that moment, he was hot. His skin, his mouth, his tongue, everything. He devoured with voracious urgency, and eager to please, I parted the seam of my lips and his tongue slipped past, exploring the contours of my mouth. I was aching for him already, a feeling foreign to me and yet not unpleasant. He would fill the emptiness I felt…

His hands did not tremble as mine did when he reached behind me and unclasped my gown, undoing the row of buttons with deft and nimble fingers until the material parted and the feel of tepid air hit the middle of my back that had formerly been covered by the crimson dress, the sensation stopping at my corset. I shrugged my shoulders and the scarlet material slid down my arms, the top of the dress coming to pool at my waist.

Being what I could only assume was deliberately delicate, Dracula ran his hands through my hair, locating each pin and removing them one by one until the spiraling locks spilled around my shoulders in a dark waterfall of curls. He combed his fingers through them, toying idly with a few coils until they were loosened and flowed more freely, framing my face in the way he wanted them to.

He leaned back and let me continue my task of drawing his tie from him, assisting me when my quivering fingers couldn't quite unclasp the buttons of his jacket and discarding it on the floor next to us, distracting me as I undid the buttons on his shirt unaided by pressing chaste kisses to the crease of my neck, driving me half-mad. I did the same to him, being deliberately slow with my ministrations, playing the innocent virgin I was as opposed to the brazen and eager girl of several seconds ago. His eyes shone with desire when I dared to glance at his expression, and by the look on his face I could tell my slow pace was positively torturous to him. Smiling a little to myself, I undid the final button and pushed hit shirt off his shoulders, careful not to let my skin even brush against his.

I was playing a dangerous game with the lord and master of the night, but it felt so right and brought me such exhilaration… perhaps he was being lenient with me because I was human, or perhaps because it was my first time. Either way, he was letting me lead… for now. It wouldn't be long before he would have to take the reins and teach me how to please him, and how to find my own pleasure. Merely thinking about it made me shudder with ecstasy.

I was unsure how to continue, and my hands went to my lap as I took in the sight of Dracula's bare torso. It was pale from centuries without exposure to sunlight, slender… muscular. I looked to him expectantly, pleading with him to tell me what to do next. The corners of his lips twitched, betraying his amusement with my trepidations to my regard, and wrapped his fingers around my wrists. "Touch me, Luminitia," he commanded with a barely discernible purr to his voice as he guided my hands to his chest. I laid my palms flat over the smooth expanse of skin, splaying my fingers to cover as much as I can, and slowly I let them explore, running them up and down his exposed flesh until he was arching into my touch. I must have felt so warm to him… so alive. I was his first human, he had told me. He had never had any of his wives as humans. This would be mine alone.

The blissful torture of such caresses must have grown to be too much for Dracula to endure when he was so eager, and I found my hands halted in their paths by his before he drew his face close to me, adding his tongue to kisses as he lavished them upon my neck and down to my collarbone. I squirmed beneath such attentions, acutely aware of the liquid heat growing between my legs.

My hands went to the lacings of my corset, but my fingers fumbled with the ties and Dracula muttered something incoherent before he grasped the restricting piece of clothing at the edges between both my breasts and tore it clean in half with a tremendous sound. I gasped, my body tensing, but as he drew the ruined garment from me and it joined his tie and jacket on the floor, I felt nothing but the brushing of his fingers against me, the only barrier between my skin and his the silk of my black chemise.

I lifted myself off his lap and let the dress fall in a puddle at my feet, a shred of wariness clutching at me for a brief moment when I realized that this was the most vulnerable I'd ever been before Dracula before; a few minutes more and I would let him in completely. And with two garments of clothing remaining to satisfy my modesty, I was about to become bared for his regard. Biting my bottom lip, I looked to him for instruction.

He beckoned with a finger and offered me a grin, the look of a predator about to get what it wants. Nerves fluttering subtly in my stomach, I went to him and he leaned forward in his chair, resting his hands on my hips and kissing my stomach through the chemise before I felt his fingers curl into his palms in restless fervency, and the garment was drawn over my head in one fluid motion.

I gasped and fisted my hands at my sides to keep them from flying to my chest to cover my bare breasts. Who knew what I would get for that. I'd already learned that submission was key when it came to Dracula, and covering myself from him gaze, raucous with desire, would have been a blatant act of blasphemy to the lord and master of the night.

There was a brief moment of pause as Dracula took in the sight, raking over me with his eyes in a caress I could feel as tangibly as I would have felt his hands running over me. I heard him mutter a single word under his breath that made me blush. "Magnificent."

When he touched me, it was like jolts of fire went coursing through my veins, setting my nerve endings on fire. His hands moved in a delicate path up my ribcage to my breasts. I shuddered, trying to look at Dracula's expression but finding it hard to concentrate through the haze of desire clouding everything around me. He used no restraint and showed no hesitation in cupping the weight of my small breasts in his hands. I gasped at the sensation and my nipples stiffened at once. No one had ever touched me this way before, and certainly not with this determination. He pressed his palms over my erect nipples and slid his hands inward, letting his thumbs flick across them before furthering his ministrations, making me tremble with the overwhelming throbbing sensation growing in the pit of my stomach and downward between my legs. He stroked and manipulated, eliciting from me throaty and unbridled cries I had never heard myself make before. So many new sensations! It was overwhelming… and strangely perfect.

Rolling one nipple between his fingers as my nails dug into his shoulders in an effort to clutch onto something solid to prevent myself from floating away on impassioned euphoria, he smiled wolfishly at the look in my eyes and asked, "Do you like it when I touch you, Luminitia?"

I was almost too overcome to speak, but I somehow managed to find the will to respond in a voice so small I'm shocked my husband-to-be heard it. "Yes," I whimpered as he began to mimic his attentions on my other nipple. "So much."

I yelped when he lowered his face and took one breast into his mouth, being cautious with his teeth but compensating generously with the teasing strokes of his tongue. I whimpered and mewed my delight as he sucked, arching my body towards his tempting mouth. Nothing had ever felt this incredible in the history of anything. And this was only the beginning, with Dracula being gentle and considerate of my humanity. When I was a vampire… oh, I could hardly wait for the unbridled experience of lovemaking to him then!

Dracula moaned, and I was shocked. I had never heard him make such a noise, but… I wanted to hear more. He moaned with me, and every lick from his eager tongue sent jolts of pleasure down my spine. My hands strayed from his shoulders, trailing down his chest and stomach, and I was audacious enough to keep going lower before I stopped, halted by the waistband of his trousers.

I had always held clothing in great… reverence, I suppose was the best word for it. I was lucky to have any at all, especially in the last few days, well clothed after years of wearing the same dress every day as it grew thinner and thinner, barely an adequate shield from cold or weather in general. Clothing was a blessing to me. But just at the moment, I despised it. I despised clothing with a passion. It was an irritating barrier I wanted to tear through, longing to feel his skin against mine. Desperate, I traced my fingers along Dracula's waistline, teasing him with the gentle caresses. I delighted in feeling him shudder.

He pulled away too quickly for my liking. I mewed in protest, winding my fingers in his hair and disheveling it as I tried to pull him back to me, but he refused to be subject to my yearning and my wordless pleas as he smirked, lifting me up into his arms and standing. His shirt fell from his shoulders to the floor some feet away from our already discarded attire as he crossed the room and laid me back on the bed. His mouth returned to its previous seduction on my other breast, and I cried out as he devoured.

"Dra… my lord!" I yelped, barely remembering to use his title rather than his infamous name in the moment of intense passion. I was so overcome that every touch of his lips, every stroke of his tongue, and every caress of his fingers made my skin tingle as though he was electrically charged. He halted for all of a second to hear my cry and then sucked hard enough on my breast to make me shriek and moan my longing. I was moments away from pleading with him to take me and fill the emptiness as I wound my fingers into his hair once more, desperate to keep him close.

Dracula had other ideas. His lips moved from my breast to my collarbone, eliciting a shudder from my thin frame with every kiss as he trailed them up my neck and began tickling my earlobe with his tongue, distracting me from the virgin embarrassment of exposure as I felt his hands creep down my stomach and lower to the waistband of my pantaloons. I raised my hips without protestation and in one rapid, fluent moment, they were drawn off my body and flung in the general direction of the chair where our other clothes laid, and I was bared before him, my most intimate place available for his viewing.

I suppose that was more than he could bear, because he stepped away from me and I watched as he rid himself of his remaining clothing, my eyes widening to regard the unobstructed view. I had never seen a man nude before, and now here was Dracula, of all people, bare before me! My cheeks erupted pink in a blush as my eyes lowered to the most masculine part of him, and although I was somewhat intimidated by the size of him (how on earth would he fit inside of me?! He was so… big, and it humiliated me further to think of that!) I also recall thinking I had never seen anything more beautiful.

I wanted to touch him, to explore what I did not know with my hands and let him feel as he made me feel, but I never got the chance. I reached out for him as he came back to the bed, but almost at once he had pushed me back to lie down, his body hovering over mine. Any breath left in my lungs left me, and I stared up into Dracula's raucous stare, truly afraid for the first time to see the intense hunger in his eyes. In a low voice, he commanded, "Spread your legs."

I did, ever obedient. My fiancée about to make himself one with me, and I was afraid and excited, two emotions that made no sense together and swirled in a chaotic array inside my head and before my eyes as the world blurred, and Dracula lowered himself atop me before he thrust deeply without warning.

I cried out as any passion left turned to pain, and Dracula swallowed the sound with a kiss, hard and urgent, quite unlike his previous kisses. Tears gathered in my eyes as it hit me; I had just lost my virginity to the lord of all vampires. This sealed my fate. I was Hell-bound for sure, and that thought terrified me.

But then Dracula began to move, and all of that pain and fear faded away. My body began to instinctively match his languid thrusts, growing rougher with each motion and sway of our hips. Passion began to overpower everything else, jolts of pleasure racing from my very core and all throughout my body. Harder and faster, and I was almost too overcome to comprehend much else. Pain? What pain? I couldn't remember pain. Fear? When? How could I be afraid? This was magic! Nothing had ever made me feel so—!

Dracula thrust one more time and that sent me over the edge, falling over passion's peak and into wave after wave of warm and luscious pleasure, my body shaking from the power of my climax. My sight was hazy as I looked at Dracula's expression, watching as he found his pleasure within my body. He let out a sharp cry and then slumped against me, but only briefly. Within seconds he had recovered, propping himself up on his elbows to watch as I tried to return to a state of full awareness. My every sense was still dulled by pleasure.

He wiped sweat-soaked hair out of my face and smiled with an almost frightening sort of contentment. "That was quite the experience," he said with a purr to his voice, kissing my cheek. I could only gasp and nod in agreement. That had been… incredible. I wanted to do it again, but I wasn't sure my body could take that once more tonight. I lifted my arms and wrapped them around Dracula's torso, shutting my eyes and willing my body to cooperate, regain my strength. But no; I was limp and could do little more than cling to my fiancée and gulp air, precious air into my lungs.

Dracula chuckled and rolled off of me, allowing me to roll over onto my side as I kept him in my weak embrace. "Humans do not have the stamina of vampires," he said in amusement, wrapping his arms around me and pulling me close. It still amazed me that his body was warm. "Sleep and recover. There will be plenty more experiences for you to have."

I managed to smile as I rested my cheek against his chest and shut my eyes, following his command without resistance. Sleep would be nice. My only wish, after such an incredible happening, was that I could have been lulled to sleep by the metronome beat of a heart, and not the hollow tone of a dead man's chest.

* * *

**DONE! How was it, guys? I am so sorry for that ridiculous hiatus. I hope this makes up for it just a little bit. This is only my third lemon, so I'd really like your feedback. Is it any good? Being a virgin, I'm kind of just taking shots in the dark.**

**ANYWAY! I hope to see you in Chapter 7 soon.**

**Phantom, out!**


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